Calling assassinated conservative influencer Charlie Kirk “a martyr for truth and freedom,” President Donald Trump on Sept. 10 attacked the “radical Left” and said its heated rhetoric was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today.”
In a four-minute live address posted to his Truth Social platform, Trump – sitting in the Oval Office – said he was “filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination" of Kirk on a college campus in Utah earlier in the day.
For Trump, Kirk's slaying was personal. The young firebrand, 31, was a staunch political ally of Trump and helped fuel his political comeback and return to the White House in January. He had featured red Trump 47 baseball caps on stage with him when he was shot once in the neck while talking to students as part of his "The American Comeback Tour."
He portrayed Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization that pushes for conservative politics on high school and college campuses, as an inspiring leader who helped spur millions of young Americans to political activism.
Authorities are still searching for those responsible. FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that a person of interest was in FBI custody but later released.
